Shanghai, Oct 11: Andy Roddick fought off a set point in the second set and held on for a 7-6 (3), 7-5 victory over Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov on Tuesday to advance to the third round of the Shanghai Masters.
The 10th-seeded American came back from a break down in the second set to level the score at 4-4 when the big-hitting Dimitrov put a backhand into the net after slipping at the end of a 43-stroke rally.
The Bulgarian broke back in the next game, however, prompting an angry Roddick to slam his racket into his tennis bag during the changeover.
"I don't know that I made a first serve that game, so that was frustrating for me," Roddick said. "I felt like I was returning pretty well and hitting my forehand pretty well. Then all of a sudden, you know, I'm not putting a first serve in the court."
Roddick then saved a set point on Dimitrov's serve before breaking his opponent at love to close out the match.
"He's definitely got all the shots," Roddick said. "He should have closed me out in the second set."
Dimitrov finished with 28 winners, nearly twice as many as Roddick, but also had 51 unforced errors.
Roddick next plays seventh-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain, who defeated countryman Tommy Robredo, 7-5, 6-3.
Almagro, who has won three titles this year, is trying to clinch one of the four remaining spots at the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London.
The only seeded players to fall Tuesday were two Serbs -- ninth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic and 11th-seeded Viktor Troicki.
Tipsarevic lost to Spain's Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3), his second straight first-round defeat after capturing his first ATP title in Kuala Lumpur last month.
Troicki fell to 19-year-old qualifier Ryan Harrison of the United States, 6-3, 6-3. Another American, Alex Bogomolov Jr., downed Marcel Granollers 6-2, 6-3.
Germany's Florian Mayer, seeded 15th, knocked out Argentina's David Nalbandian, 6-3, 6-4, in another second-round match. Nalbandian, a former Wimbledon finalist, has struggled since returning from a hamstring injury this summer.
Other winners included Milos Raonic of Canada, who came back to defeat Michael Llodra of France, 6-7 (2), 6-2, 7-6 (5), and 12th-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine and 14th-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria. AP
